A family who splashed out £1,700 on a Center Parcs lodge to welcome 2025 were left mortified by the horrors they discovered inside.
Mum Kelly took to TikTok to document their trip to the Sherwood Forest resort in Nottinghamshire, beginning by describing the “moth infestation” she soon stumbled upon. “We’ve been coming to Center Parcs at this time of year for around 10 years – the lodges are always a little bit dirty, which I’m okay with – but this time I didn’t even need to look for the dirt,” she slammed.
Kelly zoomed in on the carpet and skirting boards in one particular room, noting the “absolute filth”. She continued: “For the past two years it has been so grimy, we’ve complained and have been put on the VIP cleaning list.”
‘If you dread sending your child back to school after Christmas – these are the alternatives’
Kelly went on to reveal the limescale and build up of dirt around the kitchen appliances and sink, before telling her followers she’d been promised a “deep clean” by management. She also hit out at the dirty plates in the cupboard, which she decided to wash herself.
“I spent the evening cleaning so my kids had a clean place to stay,” she added. Kelly went on to claim: “But there’s no point in complaining – all they ever do is chuck a £50 gift card at you and expect you to be happy.”
Kelly went on to admit her confusion at find the oven “full of hairs” before cursing that there was “no excuse” for the poor level of cleanliness as all lodges are cleaned twice a week. Heading to the bathroom, she found conditions no better, adding: “You can see none of this has been wiped. The bathrooms are so mouldy – all they seem to do is chuck a load of silicone [filler] over the top [of the mould].”
Kelly also captured the rust on the heated towel rack before showcasing the matter that shocked her most – a moth’s nest she discovered after her phone fell behind a bedside table. “I noticed some things crawling on the carpet, but didn’t really think anything of it,” she added in a follow-up video.
“I decided to give it a hoover later and noticed half of the carpet ‘coming up’ and I was a cleaner for seven years I know this meant it was a moth infestation.” She closed by explaining: “I’ve come across many of these over the years and the only way to keep on top of them is by hoovering the carpet often. If the lodge had been deep cleaned as they said, this never would have happened.”
A spokesperson for Center Parcs told us in response: “We were disappointed to see these videos, as this is absolutely not the standard we expect for our guests. We will address this with the relevant teams and have provided compensation to the guest.
“With regard to the moths discovered, being located within a forest we do find that nature makes its way into our lodges from time to time. When this happens, we will of course arrange a new lodge for guests to move into, as we did in this situation.”
Writing in response to the video, which has since gone viral with 1.8 million views, one TikTok user fumed: “Shouldn’t be such a thing as a VIP clean… they should all be cleaned to high standard, especially for the ridiculous price!”
Another added: “We had a bad experience, which sounds similar. We paid £1500 for four nights we expected better after 20 years loyalty. This year, we spent £2,000 and we are going on a seven day cruise to Europe instead!”
Others, however, defended the cleaners, emphasising that they often don’t have the time to carry out their jobs to maximum effect. “I worked for Centre Parcs, sadly the cleaners are given so many lodges/hotels to clean in four hours it’s just not possible sometimes so things get missed especially if you have a really messy lodge,” one person said.
Whilst a second agreed: “I feel sorry for the cleaners because they don’t have enough time allocated to actually clean the lodges. Particularly for the bigger ones. But the price you pay you shouldn’t be walking into a dirty one.”